An Otaku's Wish
by Firebird2083
Summary: Multiinsert with semicamoes from other series. An otaku inexplicably gets a wish of hers granted, sending herself to the world of Inu Yasha. More people follow later.
1. Prologue

An Otaku's Wish

A story by SkyDragon2083

Disclaimer: None of the characters of Inu Yasha belong to me. They are the property of Rumiko Takahashi and Viz and whatever company handles Inu Yasha over in Japan. Moon Fry/Rosutsu is based loosely around a friend of mine, and Sky Dragon, of course, is based loosely around myself.

Forenote: InuYasha cast gang doesn't actually appear in prologue.

Prologue: A Wish That Should Have Remained Unsaid

Moon Fry sighed as she continued talking with her friend, Sky Dragon, as they made their way through the throng of students lining the hallway. "You know what I mean?"

"Um, yeah, sure," Sky answered dumbly, having lost track of where the conversation was going when he had to dodge around a particularly rowdy group of students. Moon sighed again, realizing that Sky had gotten himself lost in thought again. She eyed him momentarily as they continued towards his locker.

"You do know my birthday is tomorrow, right?" His suddenly pale face told her otherwise.

"Oh, no… I knew I was forgetting something…" He took on a pensive look. Moon gave him a moment, as she could clearly see the gears really grinding in his head. "If you could be in any anime, which one would it be?"

Moon blinked at the odd question. "Um… I don't really know…" She trailed off, noticing that they were almost at the junction where Sky's locker was. "Inu Yasha I guess… Why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason." The gleam that had entered his eyes told her otherwise, but a niggling thought overrode the question she was about to ask.

"I wish something exciting like that would happen to me… even if only once." Sky's right eyebrow quirked up in surprise. "You know what I mean?" She missed the solemn light that entered his eyes as she turned away form him and his locker. "See you later!"

"Sure thing…" Sky trailed off as Moon walked away, frowning. Sensing something stirring within him, he sighed as his normal consciousness was overridden by something far greater. His eyes shifted from their usual hazel to a strange swirl of many colors.

A mischievous light entered his eyes as he grinned. "Wish granted," he whispered. His eyes flashed as Moon's retreating form momentarily took on a strange glow. He grinned again. "And now for a little payback for all those times you wished for a more exciting life and did nothing about it, Sky, my boy. Oh the torture…" He snapped his fingers, a brief glow engulfing his body before his eyes suddenly glazed over.

His eyes then faded back to their usual color, leaving a slightly perplexed student with one heck of a migraine behind. The warning bell rang, signaling that he only had two minutes to get to class. His eyes widened as he hurriedly switched some books in his bag for a single book in his locker, and he rushed off to class.

Author's note:  
Reposting due to lack of interest. Separated Prologue from Chapter 1 and posted Chapter 2.


	2. Strange Encounters

An Otaku's Wish

A story by SkyDragon2083

Disclaimer: None of the characters of Inu Yasha belong to me. They are the property of Rumiko Takahashi and Viz and whatever company handles Inu Yasha over in Japan. Moon Fry/Rosutsu is based loosely around a friend of mine, and Sky Dragon, of course, is based loosely around myself.

Chapter 1: Strange Encounters

Moon groaned as she woke up to a huge headache, along with several other aches and pains in her body. Cautiously opening one eye, she groaned again as the light proved to be too much for her eyes at the moment. "I think she's awake again, old man," a sarcastic voice rang out, telling her that sound wasn't too good for her at the moment, either. She made a face as she groaned yet again at the boy's voice.

"Yes, I can tell that. Now hush up and quit your jabbering so I can take a good look at her," a second voice, somewhat more clownish, yet older, than the first, spoke up. Moon frowned as she vaguely realized that those two voices sounded strangely familiar.

"Yeah, Inu Yasha," a third voice, this time a girl's voice, said. "Let Grandpa look her over, there's no telling what that Noh Mask might have done to her!" Moon frowned again as a bad feeling washed over her. Noticing that there was a shadow looming over her, Moon tried opening one of her eyes again. The sight that greeted her confirmed her worst fears, sending that bad feeling right to the pit of her stomach.

The man standing over her had a sunken face that still showed signs of youthful energy. His white hair was tied back into a sharp ponytail jutting out the side of his head. His intense look caused her to frown.

Glancing elsewhere, Moon spotted a boy in red robes with long silver hair. The dog ears on his head and the auburn eyes were dead giveaways that he wasn't fully human. The girl next to him was wearing a white and green school uniform that had a short, green skirt. She had waist-length, raven hair and soft brown eyes.

"Well, Grandpa, how is she?" the girl asked impatiently. Moon just stared as the old man examined her face carefully.

"I have no idea." Inu Yasha hit the floor. The girl slapped her forehead. Moon just stared, too shocked to do much else at the moment.

"Let me have a look at her," a new voice, much softer than the others and carrying a maternal air, spoke as an older woman walked in with a first aid kit. Her features were similar enough to the girl's for Moon to determine that she was the girl's mother, though her hair was much shorter.

The woman knelt next to the bed that a shocked Moon realized she was laying on, and opened the first aid kit. She then proceeded to perform a well-practiced routine for examining children that all mothers seem to inherently know. When she was finished she sighed.

"Well, it seems that the poor dear has suffered a concussion on top of these other minor wounds that she has…" Moon took a moment to look down at herself, confirming that she was indeed covered in cuts and bruises, then glanced back at the woman as she went on. "…And she appears to be in a state of shock. Maybe the poor dear has amnesia?" Moon decided that silence was golden as she realized that they were talking in Japanese. "At least her delirium seems to have gone away..."

After a moment, Inu Yasha spoke up. "Amnesia? Concussion? Shock? What's that supposed to mean?" His irritation clearly shone through any façade he might've tried to use.

"Amnesia means that she has forgotten certain things, or maybe everything. And a concussion is a severe hit to the head." The girl's voice had taken on an explanatory tone. "And shock is something that generally happens when a person's mind just can't handle what's happening around it… Their mind just sort of lock's up." The girl glanced at Moon, an odd look in her eye, as Inu Yasha mulled that over in his head.

"Hello, my name's Higurashi Kagome." She bowed, bringing Moon out of her shock as she realized that Kagome was addressing her. She blinked, unsure of what to do or say. "What's you name?"

Moon blinked again, still unsure of herself. She cocked her head to the side, deciding that playing dumb would probably be a better idea than telling them the truth. After all, she didn't need any anime characters to label her as insane. "Um… I don't know…" She frowned, as did Kagome.

"Well, we're gonna have'ta call her something, aren't we?" Inu Yasha interrupted as Kagome was about to speak. "How 'bout Sakura?" Several people blinked as Moon learned how to sweat drop.

"Why Sakura?" Kagome inquired.

"Well, she's really unusual, like sakura blossoms. And she's pretty frail too, getting all this damage just from being thrown by that Noh Mask…" Moon and Kagome glared at him.  
"How about Rosutsu?" Several blinks went around the room at Mrs. Higurashi's suggestion.

"'Lost?'" Kagome asked. Moon blushed as Kagome smiled. "Oddly enough, it seems perfect."

"I guess…" Moon trailed off. She'd prefer a name more reminiscent of water.

"It'll do for now, at least until your memories return to you," Kagome's mother put in. Moon nodded gratefully, then winced at the wave of nausea that hit her. She quickly found a bucket in her hands, courtesy of Kagome's mother. Moon, or rather, Rosutsu, restrained herself to a simple smile before she found herself dry heaving at the bucket.

* * *

Kagome's mother turned towards her daughter as she shut the door to Kagome's room, where they'd put the strange girl after Inu Yasha had returned with her after the fight with the Noh Mask. It had been two days since the fight, and the girl clearly showed signs of being a quick healer; that was the only reason they hadn't taken her to a hospital. 

"Kagome, I'd like you to help her get herself cleaned up, okay?" Kagome nodded.

"Okay, Mom," Kagome said thoughtfully. "If you don't mind me asking, why?"

Kagome's mother smiled. "She must be aching for a bath, she just suffered a concussion two days ago, and we can't afford to have her falling over and hurting herself more, now can we?"

"Oh," Kagome said meekly.

"Don't worry, Kagome, just make sure that she's good and ready before you decide to help her take a bath." Kagome nodded.

"Okay."

"Now I'm just going to go get her some clothes, since we don't seem to have any that would fit her properly. Not to mention that she seems to prefer Chinese clothing if what she is wearing now is any indication…" Kagome blushed in embarrassment as her mother went on.

* * *

Moon, now Rosutsu, sighed as she finished dressing in the clothes that Kagome's mother had provided for her. She didn't really want to be a burden to them, but they didn't seem to mind. It had taken her another half-day to recover well enough to get to the bathroom, but she had desperately needed it. She was glad to have gotten herself cleaned up. That Kagome hadn't been around to help her out as her mother had obviously intended only served to heighten Rosutsu's mood. Though she had noticed some things had changed about herself when she finally found the bathroom. The most noticeable of which was that she had either aged a year or two or that her form had… matured… a great deal without her knowing it. She almost hadn't recognized herself when she saw herself in the mirror. 

She was at least a half foot taller than she remembered. And her dark brown hair, normally only shoulder length, was now down to her waist and smooth as silk. Her facial features, influenced by her unusual mix of African, Native American, and Irish blood, had taken on an oddly refined air. She still had her dark golden complexion, though, which relieved her somewhat.

Carefully tying her long hair back into a loose ponytail, Rosutsu continued reflecting on the odd changes to her personage. She had been startled to realize that she was talking as fluently in Japanese as she had English, but was grateful that she did since she wouldn't be able to communicate with Kagome's family otherwise. The fact that she didn't need glasses hadn't escaped her notice either, though she wondered why she didn't need them anymore.

Her quick recovery, though, was scaring her. Just how much about her had changed? Sighing, Rosutsu decided that she couldn't really do anything about it and dismissed it altogether.

Slipping on her silver and obsidian ring as she left the changing room, Rosutsu quickly spotted Kagome peeking confusedly into her room. "What are you looking at?" Rosutsu inquired as she tapped the other girl on the shoulder. Kagome jumped.

"I was looking at where I expected you to be," she nearly shouted, covering her mouth and blushing in embarrassment at having been caught so unaware. Sighing, Kagome continued on at with a more concerned tone. "Where were you?"

Rosutsu pointed at the bathroom she'd just finished with. "Taking a bath." She grimaced. "I really needed one." Kagome nodded in understanding.

"You shouldn't be walking around, yet." Rosutsu blinked. Kagome sighed. "You took a hard hit to the head, you know. I'm surprised you haven't fainted and hurt yourself worse than you already are..." She glanced over her shoulder before turning back to Rosutsu. "Well, if what my mom says is right, anyway. And she usually is, I guess..."

Rosutsu smiled ruefully, knowing that Kagome had just hit upon a huge understatement. "I don't feel like laying around all day. You don't mind if I look around a little, do you?" Kagome shook her head.

"Just don't go outside. I don't know what Mom would do if she found out that you were even out of bed by yourself." Rosutsu smiled as Kagome headed into her room.

"Thanks for the warning," Rosutsu said before the door to the room slid shut of its own accord.

A loud grumbling noise alerted her to the fact the she hadn't eaten since early that morning. Grimacing, Rosutsu headed off in a random direction, peeking into rooms as she passed them by. A pair of hands placed on her shoulders after the fourth door nearly made her jump out of her skin, but when she turned around, she found Mrs. Higurashi smiling down at her.

"Hungry, dear?" Rosutsu blushed as her stomach growled again. Mrs. Higurashi smiled knowingly. "The kitchen is right this way." Rosutsu followed behind the older woman, too embarrassed to speak. Mrs. Higurashi quickly led her to a dining area, where she was told to sit as Mrs. Higurashi fetched something to eat.

When Mrs. Higurashi returned, she set a bowl of ramen before Rosutsu. "Thank you, Mrs. Higurashi." She sketched an awkward bow, nearly falling over as the nausea returned, though a great deal weaker than the day before. Mrs. Hirugashi smiled.

"It was not a problem, Rosutsu." That said, Mrs. Hirugashi left Rosutsu to her food.

She glanced at the chopsticks, unsure. She'd never really used them before. Just as she started trying to use them, Kagome walked past the open door. "Oh, hey, Rosutsu! Getting something to eat?" Rosutsu laughed weakly as the chopsticks fell out of her hand. "I'm trying..." Kagome blinked at her.

"You don't know how to use chopsticks?"

"Not very well, apparently. I thought I might, but, well, nope." Kagome walked into the room, dropping her heavily laden backpack on the ground next to her. Kagome quickly showed her the correct way to hold her chopsticks, and watched as Rosutsu slowly started eating. After a moment, Rosutsu decided that silence wasn't very good company.

"So where are you going?" she asked, knowing full well where Kagome was heading. Kagome blinked in confusion, then realized her backpack was sitting on the ground next to her.

"Um… I was just…" She trailed off, not knowing what to say. After a moment, Kagome sighed and glanced at the ceiling. "I'm going to Feudal Era Japan." Rosutsu blinked, not having expected Kagome to admit the truth so quickly.

"How are you going to do that?" She knew the answer to this question, too. But how much was Kagome willing to tell her? Kagome glanced around nervously, realizing that Rosutsu wasn't going to stop asking questions.

"Um, well, it's kind of a long story…" Rosutsu shrugged.

"I'm not going anywhere." Noticing that all the noodles were gone from the Chinese soup she had been eating, she lifted the bowl up and sipped the liquid within.

"Well, it kind of goes like this…" Kagome started, pushing her pointer fingers together in an embarrassed manor. Rosutsu nearly choked on the soup as Kagome began telling the story. Kagome exaggerated some things, but it was unnerving how quickly she had caved in and told the truth.

Kagome left quickly after that, after asking Rosutsu not to tell anyone about the outlandish tale. Rosutsu hadn't responded. Then again, she hadn't responded for most of the second half of the tale.

* * *

Rosutsu glanced around to make sure nobody was looking. She'd spent the past week with the Higurashi family, and she had found it pretty boring. There had been the Soul Piper incident, but that hadn't taken place at the Higurashi home. 

Aside from the incident when she pried the whole tale of how the fight with the Noh Mask had gone from Kagome's little brother, Souta, it had been utterly boring. From what he had told her, Rosutsu had pieced together that the battle had gone pretty much as it had in the TV series until the Noh Mask sucked Inu Yasha in.

Then things went haywire. The Noh Mask's melting form had stopped moving, almost as if it had swallowed something that it couldn't quite stomach. A bright light had flashed before both Inu Yasha and herself came flying out of the gunk that made up its body, and she had fallen over the edge of the construction area. She remembered how high up that had been in the anime, and was surprised that she had survived such a fall.

Inu Yasha had defeated the Noh Mask the same way he did in the anime, then he had rushed down to check on her at Kagome's bidding. They had been surprised, too, when they found she was still alive. After that, they had brought her back to the Higurashi residence, where they had treated her for several days as she quickly healed up.

Rosutsu also learned that she had woken up once that she couldn't remember. They had been reluctant to tell her about it, and she almost wished they hadn't. She had made a fool of herself claiming that she was in anime, but couldn't for the life of her remember what it was called. Now she better understood Mrs. Higurashi's comment about her having been delirious.

Moving quickly down the hall with a bag full of clothes slung over her shoulder, Rosutsu brought herself back to reality… or some semblance of it. Kagome had just gone down the well, so the family had gone off as usual to pray for her safe return. Rosutsu dropped a note she had written earlier in the day on the table, then quickly headed outside. Glancing around to make sure that none of the Higurashis were around, she went to the building that hid the well.

If Rosutsu was going to be in the world of Inu Yasha, she was going to get the full experience. She entered the building and looked down at the well. 'If you're going to go, now's your chance,' she reminded herself. Stealing herself against the unknown, Rosutsu jumped down into the well.

An explosion of light enveloped her as she passed the halfway point in the well's depth. Moments later, the light faded, leaving her at the bottom of the well. She glanced up and was greeted with sunlight.

"I made it through…" she whispered to herself, a silly grin plastering itself across her face.

* * *

A girl sighed as she woke up with a ringing headache. Opening her eyes, she found herself grateful that someone was standing over her. Until she saw him, anyway. 

"Ack!" She shoved herself away from the little frog-man holding a tall staff with two wooden heads carved into its top end. A wave of nausea hit her at the sudden motion, making her lose her handholds on the ground and fall back onto her back.

She closed her eyes in an attempt to block out the pain in her head, subconsciously raising a hand to her forehead as she groaned.

"Step back, Jaken, as your presence does not seem to please her," a soft, masculine voice spoke out. She opened her eyes again and looked towards its source.

The man had long, silvery hair and only one arm, which was currently busy sheathing the blade he held. She glanced at his clothes, noting that the combination of fine fabrics, armor, and what she assumed to be white wolf skins gave him a somewhat pretty-boy look. She glanced back up at his face, noting that it also could fit the definition of 'pretty-boy' quite well, had the man been younger, anyway.

"Right away, Lord Sessho-maru!" The girl didn't deign to look for the source of the scratchy voice, guessing that it probably belonged to that frog-like creature.

"Who're you?" she asked softly, squinting slightly as the light from the sun gleamed off his hair.

"My name is of no importance. What you are, though, is of great importance." She blinked confusedly. "You are obviously human in origin, yet you fell from the sky. What are you?"

"Um, I don't know?" His eyes narrowed.

"Are you not aware that just moments ago, your life hung on the edge of death? After a fall from beyond my sight coupled with a landing on your head, I might add."

"Um, no?" He frowned.

"Are you aware that you show signs of recent contact with the kami?"

"No?" A thump behind her caused her to turn her head.

"She is obviously playing ignorant, Lord Sessho-maru! Please allow me teach her how to properly respect her betters!" She grimaced as she looked away from the frog-man again.

"My betters?" The man's frown deepened.

"No, Jaken. That will not be necessary." She blinked as he stepped closer to her, taking her face in his hand, and bringing his own close to hers. "Tell me, who are you?"

She racked her brain for a moment, trying to come up with something, anything to tell him. But nothing came to mind. "I don't know…" She frowned as she realized the she had no memories, fighting back tears. Who was she?

The man sighed, letting go of her face as he moved away. "She speaks the truth, Jaken. She does not know who or what she is." He frowned again. "I am Sessho-maru. I would like for you to accompany me, until you can tell me who or what you are."

"But my Lord..."

"Quite, Jaken." The frog-man promptly shut up. "I do not enjoy using the Tenseiga to save human lives, and I refuse to waste its power on nothing. I will have my answers, Jaken."

The girl frowned at these words. Had this man brought her back from the dead? There was only one course of action she could think of that could possibly make up for such a deed. "I will go with you, as a servant if you want. But no touching." She levered herself up carefully, and slowly got to her feet.

Sessho-maru nodded. "Since you cannot recall your name, I shall call you Rinjireru." He sneered. "And I would not touch a human for any such reason."

Rinjireru nodded. "Good…" Catching the look that the frog-man sent her, she frowned. "And that goes for your little fiend of a friend, too." Jaken opened his mouth to protest, though over which part of her insult, she didn't know.

"Jaken will not harm you in any way." Jaken's mouth just hung open as Sessho-maru headed off, Rinjireru not far behind him.

* * *

Rosutsu worked her way out of the well after a few minutes, and immediately picked a random direction to head off in. She was in the middle of a forest with no clue as to where she should go. She knew that if she walked around for a little while, she was bound to find Kagome and Inu Yasha somewhere, though.

* * *

Inu Yasha sniffed as he caught a semi-familiar scent. His brow furrowed. "Something wrong, Inu Yasha?" Kagome asked. He glanced at her a moment before looking away. 

"There's this oddly familiar scent in the air, and I can't put my finger on just what it is…" He scanned his recent memories, trying to come up with something that matched this scent. He paled as something did match up. "Hey, Kagome?"

"Yes, Inu Yasha?"

"You know that strange girl that's staying at your house? I think I can smell her." Kagome frowned.

"You mean to tell me that you think she'd be foolish enough to jump into the well after what I told her?" Inu Yasha glared at her.

"Kagome, who's Inu Yasha talking about," Shippou asked.

"A girl who came out of a Noh Mask Inu Yasha was fighting; we've been calling her Rosutsu, since she can't remember who she is." Inu Yasha frowned as the scent strengthened, and a rustling sound tickled his ears.

"I know what I'm smellin', Kagome, and it smells just like her!" He turned towards the rustling noises. "Look, I'll be right back, you three just stay here." He flicked Myouga off his shoulder before walking into the brush despite Kagome and Shippou's protests.

"It's not her!" Inu Yasha ignored Kagome as he followed his nose into the forest.

* * *

Rosutsu blinked as she spotted a familiar head of silver hair and dog-ears through the brush she was looking through. It looked like Inu Yasha was looking for something, considering the way he was sniffing at the air with his eyes closed. Deciding to wait for a moment, she leaned against a tree. 

Inu Yasha kept sniffing a while, muttering just under his breath the entire time. "I can smell her here somewhere, now where is she!" Rosutsu blushed as she realized that Inu Yasha was looking for her.

"Looking for me, Inu Yasha," she asked from her place next to the tree. He jumped and opened his eyes, glaring daggers at her.

"Well why didn't ya' say something sooner?" He grabbed her wrist and began pulling her in a direction other than the one she'd been heading in. After a few moments of enduring his muttered curses, she decided to distract him.

"Where are we going, Inu Yasha?" He stopped muttering and glanced over his shoulder at her.

"We're gonna go meet up with Kagome, that's where we're going." He turned his attention back to what was in front of him just in time to avoid walking into a tree. Breaking onto a beaten path in the woods, he glanced around, quickly finding Kagome and pulling Rosutsu towards her. "It's not her, huh," he sniffed at Kagome.

"Hey, a girl's allowed to be wrong every once in a while, isn't she?" Kagome turned towards Rosutsu for back up, but Rosutsu was busy making friends with Shippou. Inu Yasha huffed.

"C'mon, let's go." He started off in the direction he'd been going in when he first smelled Rosutsu's scent. "Are ya' coming or not?" he called over his shoulder.

"Hope you don't mind me tagging along, Kagome," Rosutsu said to the other girl. "No offence, but your home is really boring." Rosutsu headed off after Inu Yasha.

"I know," Kagome said. Rosutsu smiled as Kagome and Shippou fell in line behind her.

Something landed on her neck, and Rosutsu thought she felt a pinprick there. Idly reaching up, she smacked the nuisance and flicked whatever remained of it back behind her.

"Life is so cruel, to give such sweet blood to such a skilled foe," a small voice said as she continued on.

She choose to ignore Myouga the Flea.

* * *

Sessho-maru frowned at Rinjireru. "You have no idea where you came upon this strange magic?" Rinjireru shook her, now his, head. 

"I just spilt the hot water on myself, and here I am." Sessho-maru frowned.

Rinjireru had discovered that she or he suffered from an odd, gender-swapping curse that was triggered by hot and cold water. Hot water turned her into him, and cold water did just the opposite.

Sessho-maru tossed some cold water from the nearby stream on Rinjireru, revealing the young girl whose life he'd saved. She sputtered a little, glaring darkly at him. She had blond hair that she'd tied back into a ponytail that reached to the small of her back and soft, feminine facial features. She was roughly 5'6" tall and wore clothes of a cut he was not familiar with. She was also, Sessho-maru noted, what some would call 'well-endowed.'

He splashed some warm water from a kettle over the fire they'd cooked lunch with, changing Rinjireru into a boy again. He had stronger features than his other form, and stood a good half-head taller. This form appeared slightly more muscular and had darker hair. Sessho-maru noted that the child's clothes also appeared to be a better fit for this form.

"With which form do you feel more at ease?" Rinjireru shrugged.

"Neither one, really."

"Which do you believe to be your real form, if either?" Rinjireru's face contorted in concentration. After a moment, he shrugged again.

"Don't know."

"Lord Sessho-maru, considering the way these things go… And hot water being far less abundant than cold… Perhaps Rinjireru is a boy cursed to turn into a girl by some angry kami or youkai?"

"It is possible," Sessho-maru conceded. "However, it is also possible that Rinjireru was a girl given a gift by a grateful kami disguised to appear as though to be a cursed boy?"

"Ugh, my head's hurting just thinkin' about it," Rinjireru commented. "I think I could use some time alone…" Leaving the sentence unfinished, Rinjireru hopped up and walked off into the woods.

"Follow him, Jaken, and make sure he does not leave us." Granted, Sessho-maru wasn't really worried that Rinjireru would run off. He'd caught the boy whispering an oath to aid Sessho-maru earlier, though he had decided not to make a point of it.

"Yes, my Lord!" Jaken immediately took off after Rinjireru.

'That child is full of mysteries within mysteries…' Sessho-maru thought. 'He falls from the sky, is surrounded by a mysterious aura that is neither youkai nor kami, and has this odd curse. And what's more, he obviously cannot remember a thing of who or what he is.'

Sessho-maru ignored the fact that he had used the Tenseiga on the boy-girl, as the mysterious aura surrounding him would have ensured his survival either way. Sessho-maru just hadn't felt like waiting for the boy-girl to recover well enough to give answers. That choice, apparently, had been in vain and was thus inconsequential to Sessho-maru.

Shaking his head at the uncharacteristic headache he felt coming on, Sessho-maru turned his thoughts to other matters.

Author's Notes (As of Dec. 2004):  
Let me start off by saying that I take some small liberties with the abilities, skills, and personalities of the characters that I used here. Next off… Thanks MoonFry! Without her, this piece of fan-fiction may never have seen the light of day!  
Third... "What happened?" - Did anybody notice the odd possession that Sky underwent early on? That is what happened… That possessing being is my own version of Toltiir, a 'god of mischief' that I will credit to fellow fanfic writer Gregg Sharp for the time being. Suffice it to say that Toltiir will make more appearances in the future. I'm also going to horribly twist that particular continuity to suit my purposes for this story.

Author's Notes (As of Sept. 2006):  
Well, two years have passed, and my momentum on this story has practically ground to a halt. A story began purely for the enjoyment of myself and Moonfry (As I shall call her here.) has come to stagnation only a short six chapters.  
Needless to say, I am far from happy with this outcome. Hopefully, you guys can do a good job of giving me a kick in the butt to finish this story. It's worth noting that I actually have an end for this 'written in stone.'


	3. The Black Moon

An Otaku's Wish  
A story by SkyDragon2083

Disclaimer: None of the characters or situations of Inu Yasha belong to me. They are the property of Rumiko Takahashi and Viz and whatever company handles Inu Yasha over in Japan. Moon/Rosutsu is based loosely around a friend of mine, and Sky/Rinjireru is based loosely around myself.

Chapter 2: The Black Moon

"Shippou," Rosutsu asked the little fox youkai. "If you get seasick, why did you agree to take a boat?"

"I thought I could handle it…" The little boy turned a deeper shade of green, and Rosutsu decided to look elsewhere for conversation.

Ignoring the coughing noises behind her, Rosutsu turned to Kagome. "So how long have you been traveling like this?" Kagome started and looked away from a brooding Inu Yasha.

"Um, since I shattered the Sacred Shikon Jewel with an arrow…" She trailed off momentarily, thinking. "About a month, I think." Rosutsu nodded.

"So how many know…" She leaned in a little closer to Kagome and lowered her voice as Shippou leaned over the edge of the boat. "…That you aren't from this time?"

Glancing surreptitiously at Shippou, Kagome replied in a whisper. "Just Inu Yasha and Kaede so far."

"So Shippou…" Kagome cut her off with a sharp shake of her head as Shippou looked back up at them.

"What're you talking about?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing, nothing at all!" Kagome said quickly. Rosutsu would've given Kagome a flat look had some movement not caught her attention first. She glanced over where Inu Yasha was intently watching the ridge not too far ahead of them. Kagome, it would seem, had also noticed the shift in Inu Yasha's focus. "Something wrong, Inu Yasha?

He waited a moment before responding. "I thought I heard something…" He trailed off momentarily before going on. "I wanna be through these mountains before it gets dark."

Rosutsu wondered if she should reveal Inu Yasha's little secret, but Kagome spoke up before she could say anything. "Why's that, Inu Yasha?"

"Because I…" Inu Yasha was cut off by a scream. Glancing in the direction of the scream, Rosustu quickly caught sight of a girl in rough, green clothing being shoved over a cliff.

Inu Yasha spotted her at the same time, jumping to intercept her. Rosutsu watched as Inu Yasha caught her and landed on a bank without any trouble. She barely kept herself from laughing out loud when Inu Yasha was slapped by the girl.

* * *

Rinjireru sighed as he looked down at himself. 

Sessho-maru had deemed that his old clothes were too ragged to continue on with. This, of course, meant that they had gone on a clothes raid in a local village. Not that he wasn't against getting new clothes. He just didn't particularly like Sessho-maru's choice of methods. Stealing didn't quite sit well with him.

He was wearing a silken garment that seemed to be of Chinese origin. He wore a white shirt with burgundy pants. Finely finished wooden ties held the shirt together at his side and shoulder, and a yellow sash completed the ensemble. He wasn't sure how he knew, but his instincts told him the outfit was incredibly expensive. The fine cloth and the ties suggested that it was not easy to come by such materials. And the weave had been intricately done, fitting his current form like a glove.

He wondered if that would be a problem with his other form, but dismissed the thought as there was no changing it without another raid. Rinjireru also wondered if the cloth would be of any help if he got into another fight though.

He had ended up in a fight with some local bandits when he'd separated from Sessho-maru the previous day. The shirt he'd been wearing at the time had become a casualty of that fight before Jaken showed up and fried them with his staff, complaining that samurai shouldn't mess with his Lord's companions.

Rinjireru had made a significant discovery before Jaken appeared, though. He could fight. And he could fight well. He had instinctively removed two of the bandits from the battle before the little fiend had made his appearance.

He hadn't been too pleased with Jaken interrupting his fight, as the fight had helped Rinjireru relieve some pent up stress from not knowing who he was. Rinjireru had learned a little control over his fighting skills by relieving his remaining stress on the frog-man.

He glanced up at Sessho-maru in an attempt to pull his thoughts away from the limping, glaring frog-man behind him. Sessho-maru remained indifferent. "I still don't get why you insisted on these clothes."

"They were the only garments the village had that would not appear odd on either a man or a woman. Would you rather wear a kimino or a hakama and be caught in the wrong visage for them?" Rinjireru sighed at Sessho-maru's reply. The man claimed that it was the only thing he had seen that would not draw unwanted attention to him in either form, but once again his instincts were telling him otherwise. Needless to say, Rinjireru had learned to trust his instincts.

"Yeah, well my instincts tell me that there is something else I could wear that would work." He put his hand to his forehead and sighed. "I'm obviously not from anywhere around here, I look too different to be anything else. Maybe something from my native land?"

Too bad he couldn't appreciate the irony of what he just said.

"I once traveled to a land from which you may have come," Sessho-maru said. Rinjireru blinked. Other than to ask him the occasional question, the other man had mostly kept to himself. "It was utterly barbaric, and a person possessed with magics such as yours would most likely be killed without a second thought." He paused momentarily. "The men and women of the land, however, dressed distinctively different," he added as an afterthought.

Rinjireru sighed again. "Great, I have no memories and possibly come from a land of sexist idiots who would kill me simply 'cause I'm cursed. The more I learn, the more my life seems to really stink." Sessho-maru merely shrugged in reply as Jaken continued glaring.

* * *

"Now hold still, I promise this won't sting." Inu Yasha glared at the girl from his perch on a rock next to the cliff. When the girl only returned his glare, he turned his attention towards a smirking Rosutsu. 

"Whaddya want?" Her smirk faded a little, but didn't leave her face.

"Nothing." He made to reply, but Kagome called for his help.

"What?"

"Come here, we need you to help get her to the top of the cliff." He hopped down and reluctantly approached the two girls. He'd heard Kagome ask the girl her name, and she'd responded Nazuna.

"Fine, but she better not hit me again," he said, pointing at the red mark on his cheek. He could swear that no matter how weak the girl, their slaps always hurt.

"Uh oh, we get to climb, don't we?" Inu Yasha glanced at the sarcastic Rosutsu in irritation. Of course they were going to climb. He could carry only two other people at most, and there were three other people here.

"Yes, we do," Kagome replied as Inu Yasha kneeled down in front of Nazuna and picked her up piggy-back style.

"Don't you get any ideas, youkai," she promptly spat at him.

"Don't worry. I've got no intention to," he replied as snidely as he could. "Now hold on." He grabbed Shippou by the tail and started leaping from ledge to ledge until he got to the top and quickly set her down, dropping Shippou down next to her. He glanced back down the cliff, doing his level best to ignore Nazuna's openly hostile glare. "Hey, hurry up down there, we can't afford to take all day!"

"SIT BOY!" Inu Yasha's face implanted itself in the ground at the base of the cliff entirely of its own accord.

"Ouch." Quickly pulling himself out of the hole in the ground, Inu Yasha glanced up at Kagome. "Whaddya do that for!" Kagome merely glared at him from where she was, only about a tenth of the way up the cliff.

"For being so impatient, that's why!" He glared at her a moment before sighing.

"We ain't got time for this…" He leapt up to Kagome and grabbed her by the waist, easily putting her over his shoulder. He looked around, trying to spot Rosutsu.

"Looking for me?" He glared up at the ledge over his head, spotting Rosutsu's head poking out over the edge. She blinked. "Well, I guess we aren't climbing after all..."

Inu Yasha ignored her comment as he quickly scrambled up onto the ledge. Before she could say anything, he grabbed her up the same way he had Nazuna. Kagome chose this moment to get her wits back.

"Hey, wait a second!" He paused in jumping position as Kagome hopped off his shoulder and instead jumped onto his back next to Rosutsu. "Now you can jump." He tossed her a quick glare before jumping onto the edge of the cliff, nearly slipping as Rosutsu tightened her grip around his throat.

Setting the two girls down before anything bad could happen, Inu Yasha walked back over to Nazuna.

"Don't touch me, youkai." He glared at her.

"Relax, I ain't gonna hurt ya." She looked like she still wanted to argue the point with him, but she let him pick her up again. Carefully shifting her so that she was once again riding piggy-back, he turned towards Kagome and Rosutsu. "Are you coming or not?"

Kagome gave him a flat stare as Rosutsu tried to comfort a crying Shippou. "Do you know where we're going, Inu Yasha?" He frowned as her point made itself at home in the part of his mind labeled "Not Good." He sighed.

"Okay, Nazuna, which way to this shrine of yours?" He started following her directions. He quickly noticed Kagome and Rosutsu fall back.

"She don't like him, does she?" Rosutsu asked Kagome.

"She hates demons of all sorts, apparently," Kagome replied.

"That would explain why Shippou was crying."

"Hey!" Inu Yasha smirked at the little fox boy who was walking half-way between the two groups.

'They always talk about you when they think you can't hear them,' he thought.

* * *

"So this is the place?" Rosutsu glanced at Inu Yasha. 

"Put me down, youkai!"

"Fine!" Inu Yasha dropped Nazuna on the ground. Rosutsu frowned as she helped Nazuna back up.

"That wasn't very nice, Inu Yasha," Kagome criticized the hanyou.

Deciding that it couldn't really hurt to say more than she's supposed to know to Nazuna, Rosutsu brought her mouth a little closer to Nazuna's ear. "He's a big softy underneath it all, really," Rosutsu whispered. "He just acts tough." Nazuna stared hard at her. "Really."

A chime from the temple drew their attention, revealing a monk just coming out of the temple. Nazuna abruptly broke away from Rosutsu and ran towards him, only to trip on a swollen ankle. His eyes opened wide upon spotting Nazuna. "Oh, child, what happened?"

"She was pushed over the cliff," Kagome answered before Nazuna could say anything.

"Forgive me, Master, I was tending the graves when I was attacked by the Spider heads."

"Inu Yasha here saved her, isn't that right," Inu Yasha merely nodded at Kagome's quip.

Rosutsu frowned. If she really was in the anime, then that monk… She could change the order of events greatly, maybe prevent something bad from happening. Or she could sit back and let events take their course as in the show. But one thing she was certain of was that she was an unknown factor. Her mere presence could change how things would go.  
She sighed slightly, deciding to see how things progressed for now.

* * *

Rosutsu quickly ate the gomoku, savoring the taste for about as long as it took for the rice to hit her tongue before swallowing. Kagome gave her an odd look. 

"Eating fast enough, Rosutsu?" Kagome asked with a flat stare. Rosutsu shook her head no.

"We shouldn't be here," Inu Yasha muttered from his place in the corner. He was ignored by everyone but Rosutsu, who chose not to say anything, and Myouga.

"Perhaps you should try to enjoy yourself a little more, Master Inu Yasha?" Myouga suggested from his spot on the ground.

"Easy for you to say," he muttered. Kagome and Rosutsu both frowned.

"What's wrong, Inu Yasha?"

"Are you going to eat that?" Kagome blinked at Rosutsu, who blushed. She'd found out since her first meal that her appetite had definitely increased a great deal. It didn't help that once she started eating, she didn't tend to want to stop, and her plate had just run empty.

"Please, eat your fill," the monk said as he walked past the doorway, leaving it obvious that Nazuna was the one doing all the cooking. Nazuna herself chose that moment to enter the room with a plateful of niku dango, which quickly disappeared as Rosutsu continued eating, before leaving without saying a word.

"Okay, I bite," she said after a moment. "Answer Kagome's question, Inu Yasha." Inu Yasha growled.

"None of your business."

"Quit being so mean, Inu Yasha," Shippou quipped. "It's not very nice." He glanced at the untouched plateful of food in front of Inu Yasha, and the empty plates occupying the space between the rest of them. "And are you going to eat that?" Inu Yasha glared at him before shoving the plate at the young fox youkai.

"Have it, I'm not hungry." He immediately got up and walked to the door. "I'm gonna go find a good place to crash." He left before any protests could be raised.

Rosutsu glanced at Kagome, wondering how to broach the subject that was coming to mind. "He isn't normally like this, is he?" Kagome shook her head.

"No, and it's making me worry about him…"

"Master Inu Yasha always gets touchy about this time of the lunar cycle…" An abrupt curse outside cut off any further conversation. Kagome was the first one to the door, closely followed by Shippou and Rosutsu.

Inu Yasha was already fending off a half a dozen Spider heads with an untransformed Tetsusiaga. And more were standing back, preparing to attack.

Inu Yasha let off with another curse as he spotted them. "Get out of here!"

"But..."

"Just go!"

'I could've stopped this,' Rosutsu thought numbly. There was a difference, she suddenly noticed, between wanting to take an adventure and actually getting into danger. 'I could've suggested that we listen to Inu Yasha, but did I? NO!!!'

Panicking slightly and oblivious to the complaints the others were giving her, Rosutsu grabbed Kagome's wrist, who in turn grabbed one of Inu Yasha's sleeves. She then made for the front gate, the only opening in the wall surrounding the shrine. She barely noticed that Myouga and Shippou had jumped up on Kagome's shoulders.

A startled shriek caused Rosutsu to round the corner of the shrine itself towards the shrine's main entrance. Nazuna stood at the entrance, a shocked expression on her face.

Rosutsu grabbed her wrist with her free hand and turned back towards the gate in time to catch Inu Yasha's head get covered in the Spider head's silken webbing.

Not bothering to think about how she was managing to pull two startled humans and an angry hanyou safely through a mob of hostile Spider heads, Rosutsu made it out the gate and into the forest.

* * *

"Is something bothering you, Rinjireru?" Said person looked up at Sessho-maru. As a general rule, there hadn't been much conversation involving the youkai, as Rinjireru had learned Sessho-maru was when Jaken presented him with a youkai arm that had lasted all of an hour. The conversation had instead been held up in a mostly one-sided fashion in which Jaken would rant for a while as Rinjireru made smart comments that earned himself many glares. He found it odd for Sessho-maru to be starting a conversation. 

"It was nothing, my lord," he responded, the lord comment becoming more at home with him every time he spoke it. "I merely sensed something that feels like it should be familiar to me." Sessho-maru stopped walking and turned to look at him.

"Something that is familiar to you?" Rinjireru grimaced as he realized that he'd only brought Sessho-maru's full attention to himself. The youkai had shown a keen interest in helping Rinjireru regain his memories, though for what reason he didn't know.

"I don't know…" He trailed off, uncertain how to describe the feeling as he knew Sessho-maru would ask. "It's kinda like a warmth that spreads and makes me feel stronger… But it's not quite like that, though… I don't really know how to describe it." He shook his head in confusion.

"Do you have any idea from which direction this sensation came?" Rinjireru concentrated for a moment on the feeling that was plaguing him. He then pointed in a separate direction from which they were heading.

"That way, I think." Jaken, apparently, didn't like the idea of a detour.

"He is obviously lying…" Sessho-maru cut him off with but a glance.

"Enough, Jaken." He then turned back to Rinjireru. "You can take the lead, for now, Rinjreru, to lead us to the origin of this sensation of yours."

Rinjireru bowed, as he'd learned was the respectful way of accepting such an honor. "Thank you for trusting me, my lord." Concentrating on the odd feeling, Rinjireru set off in the direction he'd pointed.

* * *

Kagome stared at a slightly shocked Rosutsu, then at the still web-covered Inu Yasha wielding the original form of the Tetsusaiga, then at a dazed Nazuna, then back again. "What's going on here?" 

"Suffice it to say that with what we saw of the old monk and the Spider heads in the shrine, we must flee or perish!" Kagome glared at Myouga.

"He's right, Kagome, I can't protect you or anybody else tonight." Kagome glanced at Inu Yasha as he pulled at the webbing in his hair, revealing a head full of black hair.

"Inu Yasha, your hair… and your ears…" Inu Yasha turned away from her.

"He's human…" Shippou spoke up.

"Allow me to explain…" Myouga started, before Rosutsu spoke up.

"Hanyous lose their power every once in a while and turn fully human. The new moon is Inu Yasha's time for this to happen." Her voice, Kagome noted, sounded weak yet certain.

"Exactly right, Rosutsu…" Myouga blinked. "Hey, how did you know that?"

Rosutsu came out of her daze, raising her hand to scratch idle at her cheek. "Umm, I read some books while I was stuck at Kagome's home. One of them mentioned something like this, and it was easy to figure out the rest from there."

Kagome then realized something. "Uh oh…" Rosutsu glanced at her, lowering her hand and allowing Rosutsu's attention to be caught by an oddity she found there.

"You didn't, did you?" Kagome blinked, blushing slightly.

"Um, yeah, I did."

"What did you do, Kagome?" Inu Yasha asked with a flat look.

"Um, I left the shards of the Sacred Shikon Jewel at the shrine."

"WHAT?" Kagome removed her fingers from her ears. "Fine, I'm going back for them. Shippou, stay here and keep the girls safe." Inu Yasha put the Tetsusaiga over his shoulder and started back off towards the shrine.

"I'm going with you!" Kagome looked at a determined Shippou. "You can't fight like that, and that leaves me to protect everyone here!" Kagome glared before Rosutsu broke in.

"What am I, chopped liver?" Kagome, not fully recognizing the phrase, glanced oddly at her. "I mean, I can fight." Kagome's look turned skeptical. "I practice martial arts and I'm a natural." Kagome frowned at Rosutsu's grin.

"You also have that weird ring of yours," Kagome said uncertainly. Rosutsu just blinked. "It glowed red and a wall of fire formed in front of you as you pulled us out of the shrine." Rosutsu blinked, then looked down at her once black ring, which was faintly glowing with a swirling, reddish light.

"Wow, I have a magic ring..."

"Fine, you two can come." Inu Yasha pointed at Rosutsu and Shippou. "Can we go now?" After a pair of nods, Inu Yasha glanced at Kagome and Nazuna. "You two stay here, you'll only get in the way."

That said, the amnesiac, the hanyou turned human, and the fox-youkai boy left. They left behind the Tetsusaiga's sheath to protect the two girls.

Kagome turned to Nazuna. "I don't like this." Nazuna frowned.

"I don't trust them, demons." Kagome frowned back at her.

"Rosutsu isn't a youkai, she just looks different. And Inu Yasha's only hanyou, in case you couldn't tell."

"Whatever. I'm going after them." Kagome picked up the Tetsusaiga's sheath.

"Then I'm going, too." After all, Kagome couldn't let Inu Yasha have all the fun.

* * *

Rosutsu frowned as the leader of the Spider heads, formerly the monk of the shrine, sucked up a few of the shards. Things had once again gone pretty much the same way they had in the anime, dismally. 

She'd quickly gotten a handle on her flame shield, enough to put a little of it into her attacks, but it hadn't helped much. Using it wore her out a little, and the Spider heads refused to stop attacking. This pretty much meant that she was quickly getting pretty worn out.

Shippou tried to get away from the larger youkai with some of the shards, but was picked up before Rosutsu could shout a warning. The Spider head leader promptly took Shippou's shards as well. She nearly cursed as it then threw Shippou away and picked up a web-covered Inu Yasha instead.

"Put me down!"

"I think not, hanyou, I think I'll just make sure you don't live long enough to regain your strength," the youkai replied.

"Inu Yasha!" Rosutsu sighed as Kagome and Nazuna showed up just as the beast bit Inu Yasha, injecting its poison into him.

Leaving Inu Yasha hanging there by the webbing, the youkai turned its attention towards Rosutsu. "Now how to deal with you, I wonder?" The sharp gasp from Nazuna drew its attention before it could try to do anything to Rosutsu. "Ah, the little wanna-be priestess, a shame that you never met the real monk of this shrine, but I needed a way to lure the hanyou with the shards of the Sacred Shikon Jewel to me, and you proved to be the perfect bait!"

Rosutsu noted Kagome climbing the web-like limbs of the Spider head leader with the Tetsusaiga's sheath and Nazuna's trembling form, and she came to a quick conclusion. She elbowed a Spider head out of her way and ran to protect the other girl.

Her flame shield flared as it repulsed an attack from the Spider head leader that was intended for Nazuna. Panting slightly and sweating a bit, Rosutsu glanced over her shoulder at Nazuna with a smirk. "Be glad I got this ring, otherwise that probably would've hurt a whole lot." Nazuna merely blinked in surprise as a response.

Spotting a flash of bright light, Rosutsu turned her attention back to the fight at hand. Kagome had just freed Inu Yasha with the sheath. "Don't bother trying to save him, I've injected him with a poison that'll have him dead by sunup!" The lead Spider head let out with an ear-rattling laugh.

Grabbing Nazuna by the wrist, Rosutsu rushed towards Inu Yasha and Kagome, Shippou joining them part of the way there. "C'mon, Kagome, now's the time get out of here and regroup before something bad happens," she whispered loud enough for all of them to hear. She got several nods in reply. "Nazuna, we need a room with only one entrance, can you lead us to one?"

"Yes," Nazuna replied. She moved off. "C'mon, this way!" They followed her into a hallway, hearing the Spider head leader shout for the other Spider heads to chase after them. Shippou launched some of his fox fire behind them to slow the Spider heads down. They quickly arrived at a storage room, which they entered, shutting the door behind themselves.

"Quickly," Myouga called out. "Shove the Tetsusaiga into the door!" Rosutsu took the youkai sword from the limp hand that held it and shoved the tip into the door. "Allow me to draw the poison from the wound!" Satisfied that the Tetsusaiga was firmly stuck in the door, Rosutsu turned around as a rather rotund Myouga rolled off Inu Yasha.

She glanced around the room. Kagome had carried Inu Yasha to the middle of the room, and Rosutsu could tell that they could use the time to themselves. Myouga had come to rest next to Shippou, and they were sitting off to one side, not too far away from Kagome and Inu Yasha, but definitely not anywhere near the walls. Nazuna seemed to be trying to separate herself from all of them.

Rosutsu decided Nazuna shouldn't be alone and promptly sat down next to the frightened girl. "Scary night, wouldn't you say?" Nazuna gave her a dark look.

"Everything I thought I knew is a lie, and all you can think to ask me is if I think this is a scary night," she asked incredulously. Rosutsu blushed in embarrassment.

"Heh heh, I guess you're right," she said. "So what'll you do if we get out of here?" Nazuna gave her an odd look this time before sighing.

"I guess Kagome was right, you aren't a youkai. Are you?" Struck dumb by Nazuna's assumption, all Rosutsu could do was blink.

"You thought… that I… was a youkai?" she finally managed to ask after a brief moment. Nazuna blushed and nodded. "What gave you that idea?"

"Well, you don't look like anyone I've ever met before…" Rosutsu cut her off with a dark look.

"Nobody looks the same, Nazuna," she said. "Besides, I don't exactly come from anywhere around here, you know what I mean?" Nazuna shook her head. "Well, you know how Japan is made up of four major islands, right? Well, I come from across the sea that surrounds the islands." Nazuna simply nodded dumbly. 'Great,' Rosutsu thought. 'Nobody ever seems to keep up with me when I talk.'

She sighed. "I'm going to get a nap. I am dead tired." Digging through a nearby crate, Rosutsu soon found some extra beddings and made herself a small bed to sleep on. She lay down on it and was asleep before she even knew what had happened.

The swirling red light of her ring quickly followed her into darkness.

* * *

Rinjireru stopped, Sessho-maru nearly walking into him because of the sudden stop. "What is wrong this time, Rinjireru?" Rinjireru blinked and turned his head to look over his shoulder at Sessho-maru. 

"The sensation just sorta puffed out." Sessho-maru frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"It's just gone."

"Perhaps its source has gone to sleep," Sessho-maru speculated. "Or the source died or went behind some kind of barrier?" He paused, thinking. If the source merely went to sleep, then they could afford to make camp for the night, since Rinjireru would eventually tire out if they kept going. But on the other hand, if the source died or went behind a barrier, they could lose it utterly. "We shall continue on in this direction, for now." Taking the lead, Sessho-maru continued forward.

They stopped for the night about two hours later.

* * *

Rosutsu woke up to a prick on her cheek. Idly reaching up and smacking the side of her cheek, Rosutsu removed Myouga from herself. She sat up and flicked Myouga off her hand to Shippou, accidentally waking the young fox-boy up. 

"Ah, truly such a fiery brand of blood exists nowhere else." Rosutsu chose to ignore his comment.

She instead glanced over at Kagome, who had Inu Yasha's head laying in her lap as the hanyou slept. "How's he doing?" Kagome blinked tiredly, and smiled weakly.

"He's still warm…" Rosutsu smiled back at her, feeling fully refreshed after her nap.

"You didn't sleep much, did you?" Kagome shook her head.

"I did, just not that well."

"That's not good…" Rosutsu trailed off as she noticed that it wasn't that dark outside. She paled. "It's almost sun-up." Her head immediately went to the Tetsusaiga, still stuck in the door. She then glanced at the still form of Nazuna, wrapped in some of the other extra beddings. "Kagome, wake up Inu Yasha."

"Why?"

"Because I've got a feeling that we might be needing his help soon." Getting out of her make-shift bed, Rosutsu moved to Nazuna. Gently, she nudged the other girl awake. Nazuna woke quickly, sitting up and nearly head-butting Rosutsu. "Whoa, careful there."

"What's going on? Where are the Spider heads?" Nazuna blinked, slowly getting her bearings.

"It's alright, the Spider heads haven't gotten in here yet, but I want everyone awake in case they do…" No sooner had she said that than the Tetsusaiga fell to the floor from its perch within the door. "Oh no..."

A mighty roar came from over the building. "I've got you now!" The building was quickly smashed to cinders as the Spider head leader contracted his limbs around it. Rosutsu was glad that Kagome had already woken Inu Yasha, as the boy grabbed the Tetsusaiga before it was buried in the mess.

Finding that everyone had gotten out safely, Rosutsu sighed.

Then Inu Yasha was picked up by the Spider head leader. "Still alive! We'll remedy that right now!"

Rosutsu glanced at the horizon and quickly noted that the sun wasn't about to come up just yet. Frowning, she summoned up her fire shield, then focused it around her hand as much as she could. Feeling the flames licking at her hand, yet not burning it, she charged forward as the youkai brought a strangely calm Inu Yasha closer to its mouth. "I don't think so! FIRE PUNCH!"

She slammed her fist into one of the supporting limbs of the Spider head, flames racing outwards on its skin from the point of impact. The Spider head roared in pain, nearly flinging Inu Yasha away before thinking better of it. It glared down at her as she fell to her knees, panting heavily. "I think I'll kill you first!"

Pushing Inu Yasha upwards to get him out of the way, the Spider head pushed its head forward to attack Rosutsu. It didn't count on, however, that little extra altitude putting Inu Yasha within the rays of the rising sun. "No you DON'T!" Inu Yasha quickly made ribbons of the youkai with the Tetsusaiga, much to its surprise.

"Inu Yasha! Rosutsu!" Rosutsu slowly glanced over her shoulder at Kagome, Shippou, and Nazuna. She hadn't realized that she'd covered that much distance with that attack. Then again, she hadn't realized that she'd named the attack. "Are you alright?"

Inu Yasha landed next to Rosutsu, startling her. "Hey, are you okay?" She grinned slightly.

"Yeah, I'm just tired…" She promptly fell over backward, the drain of launching that single attack having drained her of all her energy.

* * *

"Ahhh!" Rinjireru jumped out of his makeshift bed as the sensation he'd felt earlier slammed into him like a freight train into a compact car. Sitting there a moment, panting heavily, he put his hands to his head. "Ugh, what hit me?" 

"I'd say the tree limb over your head hit you." Rinjireru glared at Jaken. "It's your own fault for sitting up so quickly, human. Honestly, why Lord Sessho-maru puts up with you…" Rinjireru quickly tuned out the little frog-man.

'Darn it,' he thought. 'It came back for a moment there, but at nearly a hundred times what it had been last night...'

"Did you feel it again, Rinjireru?" He glanced over at Sessho-maru.

"Yes, my lord," he said uncertainly. "But it was a great deal stronger this time. Strong enough that I think I know exactly where it is right now, even though it disappeared almost instantly." Sessho-maru nodded.

"We shall go to where you sensed it then, and see what we find."

* * *

Rosutsu sighed as she woke up. Slowly sitting up, since she felt like she'd just ran a marathon, she glanced around. 

She was in the boat with Inu Yasha, Kagome, Shippou, and Myouga again. Inu Yasha and Shippou were arguing, an argument that ended abruptly when Shippou's seasickness did the talking for him. Next to her, she noticed Kagome was saying something to her.

"Rosutsu? Are you okay?" She nodded slowly. "How'd you do that thing with the fire and your fist?"

"I just focused my fire shield around my hand and hit the Spider head with it." She sighed. "It's definitely too powerful for conventional use, though." After a moment, she asked her own question. "How long have I been out, and why are we on the boat?"

Kagome frowned. "Well, I think you've been out for maybe two hours, and we're on the boat because Inu Yasha thought he could smell his brother. We generally try to avoid him." Rosutsu simply nodded.

* * *

"Tell me what happened here, girl." Nazuna watched the youkai warily. She also eyed his two taller companions with some great suspicion. Turning to the tall one with only one arm who had asked the question, she frowned.

"Everything I knew to be true was revealed to be a lie." The man frowned.

"I think he means in a literal sense, not figurative." The strange looking young man in strange clothing similar to that which Rosutsu had been wearing said. She frowned at him.

"A hanyou named Inu Yasha fought with the Spider heads. He won." The taller man frowned.

"So my young half-brother is responsible for this?" He gestured at the remains of the shrine and the Spider heads. She shook her head.

"Just for the dead Spider heads. They destroyed the shrine." She narrowed her eyes slightly. "Are you a human or a youkai?"

"That is not of any consequence to you. Did Inu Yasha have any odd companions with him?" Quickly deciding that it was better not to antagonize a possible youkai, she answered.

"Yes, a girl that they called Rosutsu. She looked strange, kind of like him, but different." She pointed at the boy standing next to the possible youkai. "She had a magic ring which let her create and control fire, and she used it well during the battle."

"We shall look around. Do not get in our way." She nodded, realizing that it was probably a good idea to listen to him. He had that dangerous feel to him, despite his good manners. The three fanned out, scouring the area, as Nazuna watched. Eventually, the younger man approached her.

"That girl you mentioned… Could you tell me about her?" She blinked at his nervousness. Why was he so nervous?

"Only if you'll tell me truthfully what you and him are." The boy shrugged.

"He's Lord Sessho-maru, and I guess that if his half-brother is hanyou, then my lord must be a full blooded youkai…" He sighed, putting a hand to his forehead and glancing up at the sky before looking back at her. "As for me, I go by Rinjireru, and I really don't know what I am. I lost all of my memories somehow." He shrugged, and tapped his head.

"So what do they think you are?"

"Jaken, that's the little frog-man over there, only calls me human, and not in a nice way. But Lord Sessho-maru says I'm touched by the kami…" He shrugged again.

"Well, you answered my questions, so ask away about Rosutsu." He blinked. "The girl I mentioned with the ring."

His eyes lit up and he smiled. "Oh! Okay, now…" He launched into a barrage of questions, most of which she could answer, some of which she could only speculate on, others she had no idea. After a while, he went back to scouring the grounds. After a minute or so, the boy called out. "Lord Sessho-maru, this is the exact spot where it came from, right here! I'm sure of it!" She blinked.

That was where Rosutsu had used that attack that totally drained her. She ran forward as the group convened on the spot joining them long enough to reveal what Rosutsu had done there. They then left, making her feel much safer. Though she hoped Rinjireru would regain his memories. He obviously thought that Rosutsu might be linked with his past somehow. She could tell by his curiosity about her.

Author's Notes (As of Dec 04): Okay, first off, I'm gonna come out and say that, no, Rinjireru does not come from Ranma ½. He's actually a very uninhibited version of myself.  
Second, I'm afraid to say that I have not seen these episodes of Inu Yasha in ages. I'm working from memory here folks.   
I should also point out at this time that anyone who isn't very familiar with the television version of Inu Yasha may have difficulties reading this story from this point forward. I'm working from the assumption that anyone who is reading it knows the basic plot well enough to skip over parts that would otherwise be instrumental to plot development in the original story. This lets me focus in more on the differences that Rosutsu and Rinjireru make in the timeline. I'll try to use them when I can, though. Sorry for any troubles that this policy causes.  
Now, questions…  
Why is Sessho-maru acting so nice? Let me tell you now. There's a little (I.E. - Usually ignorable.) rule of the Ranma ½ universe that seems to have attached itself quite firmly to Rinjireru alongside the curse: Curiosity takes precedence. This rule tends to have a mellowing effect on characters touched by it.  
Why does Inu Yasha need the extra height to return to his usual self? This one is simple. Rosutsu had the effect of speeding up events so that the sun wasn't close enough to coming up to trigger Inu Yasha's transformation back to normal. Thus Rosutsu used her newest technique…  
I had MoonFry ask me why Rinjireru lost his memory, so I'll explain for everyone's benefit. The Tenseiga, once mastered, can bring any being back from the grave, but this requires genuine compassion to work. Since Sessho-maru used it with genuine curiosity driving him, Rinjireru did not retain his memories. There's also the little note of side-effects caused by mixing demonic magic with the kami energy Rinjireru possesses without his own knowledge and of the fact that Rinjireru landed on his head when he fell from the sky.These factors added up to give Rinjireru a severe case of amnesia. Don't worry, I intend on curing him, sooner or later…Author grins evilly.

Author's Notes (As of Oct. 06):  
This is where the multi-insert part really begins. Before, it was just MoonFry for the most part.  
Oh, sorry for taking so long to get this out. Computer crashed on me, and I got distracted by that.


End file.
